The Politics of Debt: The Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Bakhtiyari Khans
2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00263200410001700293
ISSN1743-7881
Autores Tópico(s)Islamic Studies and History
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments The author thanks the Iran Heritage Foundation for their help in funding the research for this article. Notes The first two volumes of the official history of BP, dealing with the Anglo-Persian (Iranian) Oil Company, contain a wealth of information on the Company as an international commercial operation, but are less informative regarding its political dealings with its Iranian clients, and are actually silent on this matter for the period after 1921. See R.W. Ferrier, The History of the British Petroleum Company, Vol.1. The Developing Years, 1901 – 1932 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1982; J.H. Bamberg, The History of the British Petroleum Company, Vol. 2. The Anglo-Iranian Years, 1928 – 1954 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1994. For a typical example of this approach see Loraine to Curzon, 10 May 1922, FO371/7823/E6587/123/34. Loraine seems to have been especially concerned to ensure that the FO also accepted this fictional view of Company/khan relations. See Stephanie Cronin, ‘Riza Shah and the Disintegration of Bakhtiyari Power in Iran’, in Stephanie Cronin (ed.), The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921 – 1941 (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp. 241 – 68. The ilkhani was the paramount chief of the confederation. Before 1923 a consensus among the senior khans would determine who would occupy this post, the consensus being confirmed by Tehran. After 1923 the appointment was made by Riza Khan. The ilbaygi was the ilkhani's deputy. The net sums (pounds sterling) paid to the Bakhtiyari khans as dividends were as follows: 1913 – 14 1,376 1914 – 15 3,453 1915 – 16 4,126 1916 – 17 5,720 1917 – 18 6,864 1918 – 19 8,580 1919 – 20 13,329 1920 – 21 17,160 1921 – 22 15,314 1922 – 23 10,517 1923 – 24 10,856 1924 – 25 12,310 1925 – 26 14,215 1926 – 27 6,966 1927 – 28 14,547 1928 – 29 30,322 31 Dec. 1930 36,116 31 Dec. 1931 31,100 1932 not available 31 Dec. 1933 30, 096 Source: 10 Jan. 1929, BP 71680; First Exploitation Company statement of account, Young, 19 March 1928, BP 71680. See also file BP 71680. For an account of these negotiations see Gene R. Garthwaite, Khans and Shahs: A documentary analysis of the Bakhtiyari in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp.108 – 9. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722. L.P. Elwell-Sutton, Persian Oil: A Study in Power Politics (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1955), p.19. Ibid., p.29. In 1925 the FEC and BOC were merged although the position of the khans was not thereby altered, except that the whole of their holding now became FEC shares. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722. See, for example, the remarks of Mushir al-Dawlah on behalf of the Iranian government as quoted in Garthwaite, Khans and Shahs, pp.108 – 9. Sir Charles Greenway to Armitage-Smith, 28 June 1921, Letters file, Mar.1920 – Mar. 1927, British Bank of the Middle East, 615 – 2. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722 (BBME collection held by HSBC Group Archives, London). Armitage-Smith was appointed the British financial adviser to the Iranian government under the terms of the never-ratified Anglo-Iranian Agreement of 1919. See, for example, the letter from the governor-general of Shushtar, Moayyed al-Dowleh (sic) to Peel, the British consul at Ahwaz, officially repudiating any agreement between the Company and the khans. Young to Jacks, 8 April 1922, BP 71724. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722. A.T. Wilson, later Sir Arnold, had been acting consul in Muhammarah and vice-consul in Ahwaz before the First World War. During the war he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and served for a time as civil commissioner in Baghdad in the post-war administration. He returned to Iran as a senior member of the APOC management, and was Resident Director in the first half of the 1920s. A.T. Wilson, Resident Director, in Resident, Bushire to Minister, Tehran, 13 May 1923, BP 71724. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722. Young, 19 March 1928, BP 71680. Jacks to Young, 17 March 1928, BP 71680. Young, 19 March 1928, BP 71680. These ‘presents’ could be very substantial indeed. In March 1927, for example, Amir Jang, the ilbaygi, told the Company that he and the ilkhani were confronted with the necessity of ‘making a present’ to the shah in order to retain office, and that they considered that 200,000 qirans (over £4,000) was the minimum amount which would be expected from them. Elkington to London, 25 March 1927, BP 71725. See, for example, F.S. Greenhouse to the Resident Director, Tehran, 15 Feb.1928, BP 71680. Sir Charles Greenway to Armitage-Smith, 28 June 1921, Letters file, March 1920 – March 1927, British Bank of the Middle East, 615 – 2. Sept. 1920, British Bank of the Middle East, 119. McMurray to Rogers, 4 Aug. 1921, British Bank of the Middle East, 119. Ibid. At the end of the Great War, US oil companies, especially Standard Oil of New Jersey and the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Company had begun to show a much more active interest in Iran. In November 1921 Standard Oil obtained a 50-year concession covering the five northern Iranian provinces, although after this became a joint venture between Standard Oil and the APOC, the Majlis consistently refused to recognize its legitimacy. Following Standard Oil's exit, the Majlis, in 1922, approved negotiations with Sinclair for a northern concession but this effort collapsed after the murder of the American vice-consul in Tehran, Major Robert Imbrie. McMurray to Rogers, 4 Aug. 1921, British Bank of the Middle East, 119. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Loraine to Curzon, 10 May 1922, FO371/7823/E6587/123/34. Ibid. Ibid. Young to APOC, 6 May 1922, BP 71724. Ibid. Loraine to Curzon, 10 May 1922, FO371/7823/E6587/123/34. Cronin, The Making of Modern Iran, p.251. APOC to London, 10 Aug. 1923, BP 71724. M.Y. Young, 8 Feb.1928, BP 71680. Resident Director, Tehran, to Director, APOC, London, 28 May 1928. Jacks to Young, 17 March 1928, BP 71680. Ibid. Greenhouse to the Director, London, 27 Jan.1928, BP 71680. Resident Director, Tehran, to Director, APOC, London, 6 March 1928, BP 71680. Ibid. Letter dated 7 Isfand 1306 (27 Feb.1928) in BP 71680. Ibid. M.V. Young to Elkington, 27 Jan. 928, BP 71680. Jacks to Young, 17 March 1928, BP 71680. Resident Director, Tehran, to Director, APOC, London, 6 March 1928, BP 71680. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Jacks to Young, 17 March 1928, BP 71680. Ibid. Resident Director, Tehran, to Director, APOC, London, 28 May 1928, BP 71680. Resident Director, Tehran, to Director, APOC, London, 28 May 1928. Ibid. Ibid. See Stephanie Cronin, ‘Modernity, Change and Dictatorship in Iran: The New Order and its Opponents, 1927 – 29,’ Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.39, No.2, April (2003), pp.1 – 36. For a discussion of legal ownership and customary rights to pastures see Ann K.S. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant in Persia (London: Oxford University Press,1953), pp.283 – 95. For Riza Shah's land acquisitions, see Mohammad Gholi Majd, Resistance to the Shah: Landowners and Ulama in Iran (Florida: Florida University Press, 2000), pp.33 – 71. Jacks to Young, 17 March 1928, BP 71680. Jan. 1929, BP71680. Resident Director, Tehran, to London, 24 Jan. 1929, BP 71680. Resident Director, APOC to Imperial Bank of Persia, 22 June 1930; APOC Tehran Weekly Letter no.17, 21 Oct. 1930, ASK BOTH H9/10. APOC Tehran Weekly Letter no.17, 21 Oct.1930, ASK H9/10. APOC Tehran Weekly Letter no.17, 21 Oct. 1930; London to Tehran, 22 Jan. 1931, ASK BOTH H9/10. R.D. [Resident Director], Tehran to Director, London, 26 June 1932, BP 71680. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Letter from E.W. to Eldrid, Tehran, 2 Dec.1933, British Bank of the Middle East 666. Financial malpractice often formed the basis for charges against those of the shah's officials who had fallen from favour for other reasons. For the political context of Taymurtash's arrest and trial see Miron Rezun, ‘Reza Shah's Court Minister: Teimourtash’, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies , vol.12 (1980), pp.119 – 37; Cronin, ‘Modernity, Change and Dictatorship,’ pp.28 – 30. Although it is certainly the case that the financial malpractices of which Taymurtash was convicted would have been tolerated had he not fallen under suspicion for other, more directly political reasons, the charges themselves were not trumped-up. Letter to Eldrid, 21 March 1933, British Bank of the Middle East 666. A table showing the annual exchange rate between 1890 and 1952 may be found in Geoffrey Jones, Banking and Empire in Iran: The History of the British Bank of the Middle East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), Vol.1, pp.359 – 60. Letter to Eldrid, 21 March 1933, British Bank of the Middle East 666. Lindenblatt himself fell under suspicion of involvement in corrupt and speculative malpractice. The riyal replaced the qiran in March 1932, with one riyal equivalent to one qiran. Jones, Banking and Empire in Iran, Vol.1, p.224. Letter to Eldrid, 21 March 1933, British Bank of the Middle East 666. For Sardar Asad's arrest and murder see Hamid Riza Dalvand, Majarayi-yi Qatl-i Sardar Asad Bakhtiyari (Tehran: Intisharat-i Markaz-i Asnad-i Inqilab-i Islami), 1379. Dec.1933, FO371/16942/E7695/47/34. Draft letter to Jackson, 31 Jan.1946, BP 71722. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722. Draft letter to Jackson, 31 Jan.1946, BP 71722. Memorandum regarding the rights and interests of the Bakhtiari khans in the First Exploitation Company, Ltd. 22 April 1942, BP 71722. Ibid. Five Separate Statements Having Exactly the Same Wording, 20 April 1942, BP 71722. Jan.1946, BP 71722. Ervand Abrahamian, ‘The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Labor Movement in Iran, 1941 – 1953’, in Michael E. Bonine and Nikki Keddie (eds.), Continuity and Change in Modern Iran (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981). There were signs of renewed efforts by tribal elements, including the Bakhtiyari, the Qashqai and the family of the Shaykh of Muhammarah, to reassert themselves in southern Iran during the 1946 crisis but these efforts were brief and without long-term consequences.
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